SPECIFICATIONS 117 



certain work for a lump sum he must do the work in accord- 

 ance with his contract. The plea that it is costing so much 

 that his profit is reduced to the vanishing-point will not avail 

 him in a court of justice. (See further as to extras, Chap. XII., 

 3, post.) 



7. Specification in contracts with urban authorities. While 

 it is optional for the parties to an ordinary engineering con- 

 tract to have a specification, it is important to notice that it is 

 provided by Sec. 174 (2) of the Public Health Act, 1875, that 

 every contract with an urban authority shall specify the work, 

 materials, matters and things to be furnished, had or done, 

 the price to be paid and the times within which the contract 

 is to be performed, and shall specify the pecuniary penalty to 

 be paid in case the terms of the contract are not duly per- 

 formed. It has been decided, however, that this provision is 

 only directory, and that the whole of the sub-section applies 

 only to cases where work materials, matters or things, are to 

 be furnished, had or done, to or for an urban authority for a 

 price in money to be paid by such authority. (Soothill Urban 

 District Council v. Wakefield Rural District Council, 1905, 

 1 Ch. 53.) 



8. Clause to secure conformity to the specification. In order 

 to ensure that the contractor shall work to the specification 

 the following clause (or a clause to the same effect) is inserted 

 either in the introduction to the specification or in the general 

 conditions : " All work done and materials provided by the 

 contractor for the purposes of the contract, or in any manner 

 connected therewith, shall be deemed to be subject to the pro- 

 visions of this specification and of the contract, unless the 

 same be done or provided in pursuance of a separate written 

 agreement." 



9. Consequences of negligence in drawing a specification, 

 The result of negligence in drawing a specification may be to 

 impose on the employer a liability greater than that which he 

 was prepared to undertake. For instance, if the engineer, 

 owing to a negligent or too hasty survey, fails to perceive and 

 allow for some difficulty, extra work may have to be carried 

 out. In one case (Moneypenny v. Hartland, 1828, 2 C. & P. 

 378) failure on the part of an architect to examine the ground 



